2020 BELARUS OPEN
- Tuesday, July 14th – Saturday, July 18th
- Brest Regional Olympic Aquatic Center
- 50m (LCM)
- Entries
- Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap/Day 3 Recap/Day 4 Recap
- Live Results
The 2020 Belarus Open wrapped up in Brest tonight, but not before 17-year-old Anastasiya Shkurdai dangled another gold around her neck. Competing in the women’s 50m free, Shkurdai fired off a winning effort of 26.12 to beat the field by well over a second.
The 50m free is an event rarely swum by Shkurdai, who steers toward the sprint backstroke and butterfly at the big meets. She took the 50m fly/100m fly gold combo at the 2018 Europea Junior Championships and accomplished the same feat while also clinching 200m back bronze a year later in Glasgow.
Last year at the World Junior Championships, Shkrudai snagged silver in both 50m and 100m fly before taking 100m fly gold at the Europ Short Course Championships.
Here in Brest, Shkurdai had already performed impressively, clocking the following times en route to the top of the podium in each race:
- 100m freestyle – 54.34
- 50m backstroke – 28.38
- 100m fly – 56.95 *National Record
- 100m back – 59.08 *National Record
Also in the pool tonight was Yauhen Tsurkin, with the 29-year-old hitting the wall in 22.32 to top the men’s 50m free podium. His time here nearly dipped under his own national record of 22.22, a mark he put on the books nearly 5 years ago.
Tsurkin’s 22.32 checks in as the 4th fastest time of his career, as well as his quickest since 2017.
